Sylvia Plath, author and poet, at her typewriter - photographer unknown to me
Is it a Royal typewriter? Why is it so many photos of people at typewriters show them outdoors — and will there be many pictures of authors at their computers, let alone at their computers outdoors?
Mystery solved? Update December 30, 2011 — looking at the photo of Rob’s Hermes, in comments below, it sure looks to me that Plath’s machine is a Hermes.
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Books, Literature, Poetry, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Books, Literature, Poetry, Sylvia Plath, Technology, Typewriters | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Nancy Sharon Colllins, reporting after her recent work at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, including reading some original letters and other writings of Edith Wharton, wonders what would be the effect on history and literary studies, had Edith Wharton used Facebook instead of keeping her journal and writing copious numbers of letters.
And that got me thinking: What if Edith Wharton had Facebooked? Had she lived in our time and communicated digitally, I wonder what her literature would be like. Looking at five days of cursive writing and personal letters made me realize that her compulsion to jot down her thoughts was no different than ours today when we tweet about what we had for lunch or share some fab link we just discovered. The difference between a letter written longhand and a Facebook post is that one takes a little bit longer (and leaves a more lasting trace), but the purpose is the same. Whether we live on a grand, Whartonian scale or a quieter, more ordinary one, we feel more significant when we share intimacies about ourselves with others.
There’s a good warm-up and/or journaling exercise in there for literature teachers.
4 Comments | Bell Ringers, Books, Lesson plans, Lessons of history, Literature, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Warm-up exercises | Tagged: Books, Edith Wharton, Facebook, History, Journals, Lesson plans, Letters, Literature, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sad fact: More people read and believe as a matter of faith the sour, misanthropic and pro-obfuscation sites about Rachel Carson than read either Silent Spring or Linda Lear’s excellent biography of the woman.
Chet Raymo is reading Lear’s book, and has comments. Fans of science writing will recognize Raymo’s name.
More:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Illustration from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884 edition - the King, "Travelling by Rail" - Wikimedia. (The "King" is being tarred, feathered, and "ridden out of town on a rail.")
Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that doctor hanging over them.
But the king says: “Cuss the doctor! What do we k’yer for HIM? Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?”
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter XXVI
Leave a Comment » | Books, Famous quotes, Literature, Politics, Quotes | Tagged: Books, Famous quotes, Fools, Huckleberry Finn, Literature, Majority Rule, Mark Twain, Politics, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
150 years ago today Charles Darwin’s “big book,” On the Origin of Species, was first published. The entire publication run of more than a thousand copies sold out within a few days, making it a certified best-seller of its day.
Olivia Judson’s already got her day-after blog post up at the New York Times site, talking about a key issue in evolution: Extinction. She already blogged on the importance of the Big Book.
And the “Origin” changed everything. Before the “Origin,” the diversity of life could only be catalogued and described; afterwards, it could be explained and understood. Before the “Origin,” species were generally seen as fixed entities, the special creations of a deity; afterwards, they became connected together on a great family tree that stretches back, across billions of years, to the dawn of life. Perhaps most importantly, the “Origin” changed our view of ourselves. It made us as much a part of nature as hummingbirds and bumblebees (or humble-bees, as Darwin called them); we, too, acquired a family tree with a host of remarkable and distinguished ancestors.
The reason the “Origin” was so powerful, compelling and persuasive, the reason Darwin succeeded while his predecessors failed, is that in it he does not just describe how evolution by natural selection works. He presents an enormous body of evidence culled from every field of biology then known. He discusses subjects as diverse as pigeon breeding in Ancient Egypt, the rudimentary eyes of cave fish, the nest-building instincts of honeybees, the evolving size of gooseberries (they’ve been getting bigger), wingless beetles on the island of Madeira and algae in New Zealand. One moment, he’s considering fossil animals like brachiopods (which had hinged shells like clams, but with a different axis of symmetry); the next, he’s discussing the accessibility of nectar in clover flowers to different species of bee.
At the same time, he uses every form of evidence at his disposal: he observes, argues, compares, infers and describes the results of experiments he has read about, or in many cases, personally conducted. For example, one of Darwin’s observations is that the inhabitants of islands resemble — but differ subtly from — those of the nearest continents. So: birds and bushes on islands off the coast of South America resemble South American birds and bushes; islands near Africa are populated by recognizably African forms.
Of course you –you cognescenti, you — know Judson is the wit behind Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, a thoroughly delightful, funny and scientifically accurate book. Which brings to my mind this question: Why are scientists, and especially evolutionary scientists, so funny and charming, in stark contrast to the dull proles of creationism?
And, were he not ill at the time, can you imagine what a fantastic dinner guest Charles Darwin himself would be?
Darwin's hand-drawn "tree of life"
Meanwhile, at PBS, NOVA already featured “Darwin’s Darkest Hour” earlier this year. NOVA research Gaia Remerowski alerts us to a coming production, “What Darwin Never Knew,” featuring progress made in evolutionary development, “evo-devo.” Science marches on.
Remerowski illustrated her post with Darwin’s quick, hand drawing of a “tree of life,” a drawing that has become iconic in biology circles — like the one to your right. This one comes from the website of “Speaking of Faith,” another PBS production that featured Darwin earlier this year. SOF offered an online tour of some of the work of Darwin, too — other drawings from Darwin’s own hand. Nice exhibit.
Our country’s advocates for good science education, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) carried Origin Day greetings and a rundown of a dozen projects commemorating the 150th year of the book, and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.
Happy Origin Day, indeed.
5 Comments | Books, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Higher education, Historic documents, History, History blogs, History museums, Science | Tagged: 150th Anniversary, Biology, Books, Charles Darwin, Education, Evolution, History, Origin of Species, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Debating the effects of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring got me wondering about the true influence of that book. That quickly turned into wondering about the true influence of other writings, books and papers that might be credited with having turned around history in a given field, or in the United States (I’m focusing on U.S. history this year since that’s what I’m teaching).
What books and writings — not events, not inventions — literally changed U.S. history?
I have a quick list, not in chronological order, nor any other order, really:
What about Profiles in Courage? Did it have so much influence? Any influence at all?
I didn’t include Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but I wonder if it should be there. I regard it as the novel in which America came of age, when Huck decides he’ll go ahead and burn in hell by not turning Jim in as an escaped slave, because Jim is a man and a good friend. (I don’t think a discussion of the validity of Huck’s religious beliefs gets at the issue here, where he does what is right assuming bad consequences, but maybe that’s a greater influence later on.)
Oh, surely I’ve overlooked some very important contribution by someone. De Tocqueville perhaps? Were there other books that were greatly influential in their time, that we now generally don’t consider? Ida Tarbell’s work, perhaps? Did Edwin Hubble have a fundamental publication we can point to? How about Alpher, Herman and Gamow and Big Bang?
A follow-on question might be music, plays and movies that had similar results — not sure of any that qualify, though I wonder about the influence of “Show Boat” in the campaign for desegregation and civil rights, and I wonder about the influence of “Our Town” on our view of civic government and small town life especially given that so many thousands of people participated in local and school productions of the thing over the years. “Hair!?”
I’m looking for sources to use to provide genuine light to a high school student in U.S. history. Some of these sources we touch on, but others are completely ignored in all current U.S. history texts for public schools.
What do you think?
27 Comments | Books, History, Turning Points | Tagged: Books, Literature, Turning Points, U.S. history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stacy Conradt writes about ten authors and their typewriters, at Mental Floss. Some we’ve seen here at the Bathtub, some we haven’t: Steinbeck, Hemingway, Kerouac, David Sedaris, Mark Twain, John Updike, George Orwell, Hunter S. Thompson, David McCullough, P. J. O’Rourke.
Leave a Comment » | Banned Books, Books, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Authors, Books, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Victor Hugo
— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, St. Denis, bk. III, ch. 3
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, Biology, Books, knowledge, Literature, Quotes, Science | Tagged: Astronomy, Biology, Books, Famous quotes, Literature, Quotes, Science, Victor Hugo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Banned Books Week 2009 is set for September 26 through October 3.
Which banned book will you read just to poke the eye of the censors, and to wave the flag of freedom and liberty?
Ellen Hopkins wrote several controversial books, including Burned which is out of favor in Pocatello, Idaho, close to my birthplace.* She has written a Banned Books Week Manifesto, which she recites in the video. You can read an interview with Ms. Hopkins at the site of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).
___________________
* Does Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub have any readers in Pocatello? Pocatello readers: Do you know of anyplace you can get a copy of Burned to read, in Pocatello?
Banned Books Week resources:
Encourage others to read banned books, too:
2 Comments | Banned Books, Bill of Rights, Books, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, knowledge, Libraries, literacy, Literature, reading | Tagged: Banned Books Week, Books, Ellen Hopkins, freedom, Libraries, Pocatello Idaho, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Boing-Boing carried a compelling post from Cory Doctorow, who wrote the “young adult” book Little Brother.
Back in August, I got a surprise in the mail: a long Braille computer printout and a letter. The letter was from Patti Smith, who teaches visually impaired middle-schoolers in Detroit’s public school system. She explained that almost all the Braille kids’ books she had access to were for really little kids — kindergartners, basically — and how discouraging this was for her kids.
The reason she was writing to me was to thank me for releasing my young adult novel Little Brother under a Creative Commons license, which meant that she could download the ebook version and run it through her school’s Braille embosser (US copyright law makes it legal to convert any book to Braille or audiobook for blind people, but it is technically challenging and expensive to do this without the electronic text).
I wrote about this on my personal blog, and it inspired my colleague, the sf/f writer Paula Johansen, to write to Patti to offer up her own YA titles as ebooks for Patti’s students.
Well, this got me thinking that there might be lots of YA writers who’d be glad to see their books get into the hands of visually impaired, literature-hungry students, so I worked with Patti to put together the pitch below. Please pass it along to all the YA writers you know. I would love to see Patti’s class start the school year with a magnificent library of hundreds and hundreds of fantastic YA books to choose from, so that they can start a lifelong love-affair with literature.
Thanks!
I am Patti Smith and I teach at OW Holmes, which is an elementary-middle school in Detroit Public Schools in Detroit, Michigan. My students are visually impaired, ranging in age from 2nd grade to 8th grade. Five of my students are Braille writers and two are learning Braille. I would love books for young adults in electronic format (Word or RTF) so that I can plug the file into my computer program and emboss the book in Braille so my kids can have something to read. I have found it very difficult to find books for young adults; most seem to be written for very young readers. My Braille readers are all age 11+ and it is a challenge to find relevant books for them to read. Thank you so much!!
Patti’s email is TeacherPattiS@gmail.com
Tip of the old scrub brush to Dr. Pamela Bumsted.
Pass this along so others can see, too:
Leave a Comment » | Books, Citizenship, Learning, reading | Tagged: Blindness, Books, Braille, Learning to Read, reading, Young Adult Books | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What to read this year for U.S. history?
Kevin Levin at Civil War Memories notes three worthy candidates for outside reading, for student projects, and other good use (I’ve stolen his whole post — you’d do well to go visit his site and see what else he has):
I‘m a little late in posting this, but wanted to point your attention to the three finalists for this year’s Frederick Douglass Book Award that is sponsored by Yale’s Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition.
The finalists are Thavolia Glymph for Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household (Cambridge University Press); Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton and Company); and Jacqueline Jones, “Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf Publishers). The prize comes with a generous check of $25,000. I’ve read both Annette Gordon-Reed’s book (a National Book Award winner) and Glymph’s study. Although the publisher sent me a copy of Saving Savannah, I have not had a chance to look through it. My money is on Glymph’s Out of the House of Bondage.
Leave a Comment » | Books, Civil War, History, Slavery, Thomas Jefferson | Tagged: Books, Civil War, Frederick Douglass Book Awards, History, Literature, Sally Hemings, Savannah, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Who knew?
Three of Jack Kerouac’s fantasy baseball team cards, circa 1953-56. New York Public Library, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive
Kerouac fans, and anyone who participates in a rotisserie league sport, and anyone who just wants a moment of merriment, should read this New York Times story:
Almost all his life Jack Kerouac had a hobby that even close friends and fellow Beats like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs never knew about. He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either for cars (the Pittsburgh Plymouths and New York Chevvies, for example) or for colors (the Boston Grays and Cincinnati Blacks).
At least one more book Kerouac had inside, unwritten. Now we just see the outline of what could have been a superb, and funny, work of fiction, in a book by New York Public Library curator Isaac Gewirtz. The Kerouac items are in the Berg Collection at the Library.
No historian could make this stuff up.
1 Comment | Books, History, History and art, Libraries, Literature | Tagged: Books, Fantasy Baseball, History, Jack Kerouac, Literature, New York Public Library | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Here’s a book that most creationists hope you never read and which strikes terror in the hearts of Discovery Institute fellows: Darwin’s Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin’s Views on Human Evolution.
Cover of Desmond and Moore's 2009 book, Darwin's Sacred Cause
It’s another grand book on Darwin from the team of Adrian Desmond and James Moore, based on their deep diving into the archives of writings from and about Darwin in his own time. Their earlier book, Darwin, is a bit of a modern classic in biography, and a must-read for anyone seriously studying Darwin and evolution.
This book promises to eviscerate a favorite chunk of calumny claimed by creationists, that Darwin’s theory is flawed because Darwin himself was a racist. Scientists painstakingly note that the racist views of a scientist don’t affect the theory (think of William Shockley and the transistor), but creationists still use the false claim as fodder for sermon’s and internet rants. Or, in the case of the Discovery Institute, the false claims is used as a justification to appoint a fellow in the propaganda department, Richard Weikart.
Desmond and Moore confront the claims head on, it appears. How will creationists change their story to accommodate these facts? Or, will creationists resort to denial?
One theme that may be supported in the book is the realization that pursuit of a noble cause frequenly ennobles those who pursue it. Certainly it is easy to make a case that Darwin’s hatred of slavery and advocacy for its abolition colored his views of what he saw, though perhaps not so much as what he saw colored his views of slavery and abolition. Desmond and Moore have a chapter that discusses Charles Lyell’s trips to America, and Lyell’s different views on slavery having traveled the American south. Lyell did not travel as an abolitionist, and his views suffer as a result. Lyell was a product of his times in the portrait Desmond and Moore paint. Darwin demonstrated the power of science, and the power of personal use of science, in using the facts to overcome racism; Darwin used his experience and study to rise above the times. That may be the difference between the men, why we celebrate Darwin today, and remember Lyell as a good scientist, but usually a footnote to Darwin.
Resources:
2 Comments | Biography, Books, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, Racism, Science | Tagged: Biography, Books, Charles Darwin, Evolution, Racism, Science, Slavery | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
As Joe Nick Patoski put it on his blog, and I have been remiss in failing to mention, Patoski’s book on Willie Nelson won the TCU Texas Book Award. The book is Willie Nelson, an epic life.
Friends and neighbors, please click on the letter and it’ll make it big enough so you can actually read what it says.
Woo hoo and Yee haw!
Good news! Now, can we get Willie’s houses in Fort Worth noted on some tour?
Resources:
Leave a Comment » | Biography, Books, History, Music, Texas, Texas history, Texas Music | Tagged: Biography, Books, Country Music, Joe Nick Patoski, Music, Texas, Texas Music, Willie Nelson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From the same people who brought us Goodnight Bush, some of the attractions at the theme park that is planned for the campus of Southern Methodist University; or attractions that might be planned, if the litigation ever ends.
In a more serious vein:
Leave a Comment » | History, Humor, Libraries, Museums, Politics, Presidents, Texas | Tagged: Books, Humor, Libraries, Library, Politics, President George W. Bush, Satire, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 